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Drumpellier


Drumpellier is a country park situated within North Lanarkshire Council, to the west of Coatbridge. The park was formerly a private estate. The land was given over to the Burgh of Coatbridge for use as a public park in 1919, and was designated as a country park in 1984 by the then Monklands council, part of Strathclyde Regional Council. Drumpellier Country Park covers an area of 500 acres (2.0 km2) and comprises two natural lochs (one of which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)), lowland heath, mixed woodlands and open grassland. The Monkland Canal lies towards the southern perimeter of the park. The lochs and the canal attract a large number of water birds, both resident (such as swans and mallard ducks) and over-wintering migrants, and the loch shores and woodland floor provides an abundance of wild flora. The woodlands are also rich in bird life, small wild animals and many types of fungi.

The lochs at Drumpellier are part of a chain of kettle ponds formed towards the end of the last ice age. As the glacier that covered most of Scotland slipped down towards the sea it churned up great tracts of land. This created the great lochs, such as Lomond and Linnhe, and also produced small pockets of water such as the Garnkirk chain of Hogganfield, Frankfield and the Bishops Lochs (an SSI that comes under Glasgow City Councils administration) that include Drumpellier's Lochs, Woodend and Lochend. The loch side path is approximately 1 mile long and it is suitable for bikes.

Man has also left his mark on the park area over many thousands of years. Flint tools of the Stone Age have been found on the shores of Woodend Loch and Lochend Loch (always referred to locally as Drumpellier Loch) once boasted a fine example of a crannog, a dwelling place of iron-age man situated on stilts in open water for security and protection. The site of the crannog is depicted on Lochend Loch using small coloured buoys.


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